Diana and I have had many kind and concerned friends email us recently regarding the public launch of engage.com and the quickly rising popularity of meetup.com. Since we’ve been pretty stealthy until now about what MIXTT is, exactly, it’s understandable that people are wondering if we have two very similar and threatening competitors in our midst. I am stoked to have friends that care enough to bother emailing me about this stuff and love when people send me pertinent pieces of industry news – so please, keep it coming! I want to address these concerns for ourselves, our prospective investors, and most importantly, prospective users who may be wondering why they should sign up for MIXTT as opposed or in addition to the other two. Here’s why: While these two sites fall into a space that might be similarly termed to our own (e.g., social dating, group dating, social meetup), they’re both based on very different concepts, and lead to very different offline situations. At Engage, you sign up, try to get as many of your friends as possible to sign up too, and then start playing matchmaker to arrange one-on-one dates on their behalf. In my opinion, it’s still a blind date, and it’s still awkward. Only, your friend told you whom to go on it with instead of you picking out the person yourself. And that latter idea, I actually like – sometimes we overlook the opportunities that might be best for us, and I believe in trusting your friends a bit when it comes to romantic arrangements. But MIXTT enables this to happen sans the awkwardness and pressure of Engage. At MIXTT, you sign up, invite your friends to join you, plan to go out, and coordinate with another group of friends to meet up somewhere. It’s cool, casual, and laid-back. Meetup.com is awesome but has nothing to do with dating at all. It’s a central hub to organize activities/events/hang-outs with typically large groups of people who have similar interests. Personally, I’ve benefited from a Spanish Language Practice meetup and a Tech Entrepreneurs meetup, each of which had at least forty attendees. So, I am by no means trying to shoot down either of these sites – but wanted to express that there is significant differentiation between us and them. Last week, Diana brilliantly repossessed a P. Diddy line to make it our catch phrase: “Your friends can get with my friends, and we can be friends.” That is really what MIXTT is all about.

MIXTT gets groups of friends to sign up together and meet other groups that pique their interest.

I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a fan of match.com or of blind – and potentially awkward-as-hell – dates in general. Instead, I rely on going out with friends, in hopes of meeting someone cool.

Unfortunately, I usually end up meeting the one guy at the bar that is married and has 3 kids at home. I’m sure I’m not the only one with such sour luck. Ladies, how many times have you indulged the oblivious, albeit generous “drink-buyer” in conversation even though he lost you at “Hey, do I know you from somewhere”? Guys, I’m sure you are not immune to this sort of misfortune either.

It shouldn’t be so hard for my friends and I to meet a group of guys that rival our own intellect, attractiveness, and life goals. If only there was a mechanism to enable these sorts of run-ins… well, leave it to Eve Peters to come up with an answer. That’s right, MIXTT does offer a solution.

Here’s how it works: You and your friends create a profile with some pictures, notes on your achievements, hobbies, favorite team, and so on. Then you peruse other group profiles and pick out the sort of guys/girls you and your friends would potentially hit it off with. From here you can choose to message, flirt, or ask to meet up with them.

Heck, I’d do anything to increase my chances of meeting a worthy male the next time I invest 45 minutes straightening my hair. If me and my friends knew that the guys we’re about to meet are actually educated, athletic, hot, SPCA volunteering, basketball enthusiast — well imagine! — that’s enough to get me to shave my legs! What a brilliant idea, Eve.